Hows this for a New York Fashion Week party in the age of anxiety? No guest list, no VIP labels, no PR squadron to tussle with at the door. Everything is designed by real people and made in America with ecological sensitivity, and you can buy it on the spot (much of it for less than $100). Anybody can come in off the streetand all sorts of people do. <\/p>\n
This was the premise of last nights opening fete for the brand Everybodys new Lower East Side pop-up: fashion as humanist utopia. As part of Informal Shop, a four-day installation hosting experiential commerce and cultural programming in a temporary Henry Street storefront, founders Iris Alonzo and Carolina Crespo gathered friends and strangers for a sort of antiValentines Day, anti-fashion event to celebrate the newest offering in their ongoing series of collaborations with non-trained designers: a tracksuit created by model and activist Adwoa Aboah. <\/p>\n
Adwoa Aboah in her Gurls Talk T-shirt, made with Everybody Photo: Courtesy of Everybody <\/p>\n
Aboah first worked with Alonzo and Crespo when she asked them to produce the T-shirts for her Gurls Talk feminist action project, which are available at the store.. I just like their aesthetic; I like that they use recycled cotton; I like that theyre women; I like that we talk about our ideas over home-cooked meals, Aboah said. <\/p>\n
Alonzo and Crespo also confessed to having a style crush on Aboah. I know shes been called an It girl, Alonzo said, but shes so much more than that. <\/p>\n
The tracksuit they designed together consists of a boxy, high-collared sweatshirt top and higher-rise pants in buttery fleece accented by gold zippers with circular pulls. It will debut on Everybodys site this spring and will be sold in black, navy, and pink. <\/p>\n
The fit is as effortlessly cool as Aboah herself. I didnt want it to have a saggy crotch; I wanted it to look good on the hips; I wanted it to look good on the bum; I didnt want it to look too girly, she explained of the design. Her references? Roller disco 60s tracksuits meets Wimbledon tennis players meets RunD.M.C. <\/p>\n
Photo: Courtesy of Everybody <\/p>\n
And though you cant buy the tracksuit yet, the pop-ups other merchandise is equally compelling. We wanted to do something that really felt immersive, where you can escape into some strange fantasyland, Alonzo explained. The brands signature trash teesthick, vintage-style staples made from 100 percent cotton recycled in the U.S. from cutting-floor scraps, priced at $25 eachhang beside a mini-exhibition detailing the industrial process. <\/p>\n
To showcase a pair of jaunty mens cotton shirts designed by chess master Prakash Gokalchandwhom Alonzo met by chance in Los Angeless MacArthur Park, where he plays every daya chessboard and chairs rest beneath an enormous palm tree cut-out and a Hockney-esque pool graphic. (Later in the night, a pair of models, or Gen Z-ers who could have been, wearing tracksuits of their ownhers a pink Juicy-ish number paired with rainbow platform sneakers, his a Royal Tenenbaums burgundysat down for a serious match. No, Alonzo insisted, they were not part of the installation, and she had no idea who they were.) <\/p>\n
Downstairs, an indigo-belted jacket with pockets galore, designed by artists Mae Elvis Kaufman and Kalen Hollomon, is modeled by mannequins sporting Kaufmans formidable wig collection. (Behind them, posters designed by Hollomon juxtapose 80s-hair-salon-goddess photos with on-point fortune cookie messages: This is not a day to take risks. Diplomacy rules today.) In a neon-lit corner, African-print body pillows shaped like snakes that have swallowed houses, designed by the art collector Jean Pigozzi, were styled as a plush conversation pit. But conversations ground to a halt last night when a pair of go-go boys showed up and stripped down to their contoured briefs, then writhed away before a circle of mostly female onlookers on what became an impromptu dance floor. (Who needs a valentine?) <\/p>\n
Photo: Courtesy of Everybody <\/p>\n
A table with postcards and stamps for visitors to send handwritten correspondencebright yellow pens at the readyfeels, in the smartphone era, almost like a provocation. Alonzo and Crespo have more where that came from: Tonight, Kaufman and Hollomon will lead a workshop called An Hour of Escapism, in which Kaufman will transform participants with makeup and wigs, with results documented by Hollomon. Tomorrow, landscape architect Margot Jacobs and producer Ed Brachfeldwhose military-style jumpsuit and sturdy cotton outerwear are part of the collectionwill hold court alongside complimentary astrology readings; on Friday, artist and writer Kiki Kudowho designed a little black stretch dress with playful round cut-outs, also available at the storewill serve a Japanese bento breakfast whose probiotic count, Alonzo made a point of noting, will be off the charts. <\/p>\n
Is it all some sort of illuminati-grade branding exercise? Or homespun creativity seasoned with a dash of silly fun? Maybe its both. As the crowd thinned out late last night, Aboah, ready to rest up for one more day of runway shows, walked out carrying a plant housed in a pot shaped and painted like a pair of naked boobs. Across the room, a political action plan was hatched. <\/p>\n
Open 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. through February 17 at 142 Henry Street, New York; everybody.world . <\/p>\n
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Everybody's Pop-Up Shop Throws a Wild AntiFashion Week Party With Adwoa Aboah - Vogue.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hows this for a New York Fashion Week party in the age of anxiety? No guest list, no VIP labels, no PR squadron to tussle with at the door. Everything is designed by real people and made in America with ecological sensitivity, and you can buy it on the spot (much of it for less than $100) Continue reading